Tag Archives: Ernests Gulbis

Perhaps Ernests Gulbis wishes he had stayed home rather than take that wildcard into the Stockholm Open. Although he has yet to acknowledge or deny Sunday night’s events, his tennis career is still not going in the right direction as he endured a 6-2, 6-4 loss in the first round by eighth seed Feliciano Lopez. Other winners included Robin Soderling and Tommy Haas.

In Moscow at the Kremlin Cup, Marat Safin’s retirement party in his native country was extended thanks to his mild upset of top seed Nikolay Davydenko 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. I say “mild” as Davydenko admitted to being a bit tired after his extraordinary title run at Shanghai the week before. But Davydenko still looks in good shape to qualify for the ATP Barclays Final in London.

In other end of the year qualifying news, Agnieska Radwanska saw her chance to make it to Doha end when she lost to Maria Kirilenko 6-3, 6-3. The early exit means that it is now down to Jelena Jankovic and Vera Zvonareva to battle for the final spot as they are both still alive in the Kremlin Cup.

The continuing story on the two ATP players caught soliciting sex during the Stockholm Open gained more heat as the names of the supposed culprits were announced both by Italian media and of all places on former top 100 player Joachim Johansson’s personal blog.

Johansson, who is playing in the event this week, wrote “no comment” when asked the question “What do you think about what Gulbis did?”, referring to Ernests Gulbis who, at the moment, is considered one of the suspects. Previously his blog reportedly said something like “Gulbis admitted it”, though that was changed.

The name of the other suspected player is still up in the air and at this time, no official charges have been filed. If and when Gulbis will say something about the whole thing before his scheduled match against Feliciano Lopez remains to be seen.

Of course leave it to the Italians to poke fun at the whole thing. The English translation of their story’s headline says it all. – “Tennis Mischievous Red Lights In Stockholm”.